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Members of the Rojava police force (Asayish) in the city of Kobanî in northern Syria. (Wikimedia Commons)

For the past few years, most people would have come across news stories of how Kurdish fighters in Syria, especially women, have been crucial in battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Very few, however, would be aware that in the north and eastern parts of Syria these same Kurdish fighters are part of a revolution as progressive, profound and potentially as far-reaching as any in history.

In the north and eastern parts of Syria, an attempt to create an alternative system to hierarchical states, capitalism and patriarchy is underway and should it fully succeed it holds the potential to inspire the struggle for a better, more egalitarian Middle East, Africa, South Africa and indeed world. As in any revolution it has had its successes and shortcomings, but it is already an experiment worth reflecting on as it shows a far different world could be built to the extremely unequal and increasingly right-wing and authoritarian one that exists today.

The Rojava Revolution lays down tracks to building a better, more democratic and more feminist society

Source: Business Day https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2018-03-05-an-experiment-for-a-better-life-is-under-way/

Sisters in arms: A Yazidi woman in the Kurdish forces. Women play a central role in the Rojava Revolution and there are women-only militias called Women’s Protection Units. Picture: REUTERS

The world is facing an economic crisis on a scale last seen in the 1930s. It has resulted in living conditions and incomes of workers and poor people — and increasingly the middle class — being eroded by governments through austerity and by businesses through rationalisations and wage freezes.

Like the 1930s, this crisis is triggering the rise of extreme right-wing regimes and right-wing populism. It is also resulting in an increase in global conflict and threats of war, with Syria a key example.

But in the heart of the raging war that is Syria, there is a glimmer of hope.

In the north of Syria bordering Turkey and Iraq, the Kurdish and Arab people who live there have used the vacuum in power created by the war to try to build a better, more democratic and more feminist society. This experiment is known as the Rojava Revolution. It is the outcome of a struggle by the Kurdish people for national liberation but it has gone beyond this and become an experiment to create an alternative to a society that produces for profit.

Before years of war devastated northern Syria, decades of capitalist exploitation by the Syrian state created the ecological disaster the people of Rojava face today. Through wheat monoculture, oil extraction, and neglect of waste management planning, the Syrian state left the region with growing ecological problems. Simultaneously, the Turkish government has expanded dam projects along rivers running south into northern Syria for decades, making it harder for people to grow food and be self-sustainable.

When Rojava was liberated from direct Syrian government control in 2012, this set off a political revolution towards a self-organized democratic society across northern Syria. In 2016, 151 delegates from various northern regions of the Syrian state, including Rojava, proclaimed autonomy through the creation of the ‘Federation of Northern Syria–Rojava’. Revolutionary forces throughout Rojava continue building an autonomous democratic society today.

Very few South Africans are aware that currently in the north and eastern parts of Syria (Rojava) a revolution as progressive, profound and potentially as far reaching as any in history is taking place. There, an alternative system to the state, capitalism and patriarchy is being built and it holds the potential to inspire the struggle for a better, more egalitarian Middle East and indeed world.

Since 2012, when the Syrian state in the area collapsed, people in Rojava – Kurds, Turks and Arabs – have established a federation of communes and councils, based on direct democracy, to run society without a hierarchical and patriarchal state. In the process a genuine democratic form of people’s power has been created, in which women play a key role. On the economic front, they have been attempting to replace capitalism with a communal economy. At the heart of this experiment are worker self-managed co-operatives that produce not for profits, but to meet people’s needs. These co-operatives are in fact accountable to everyone in Rojava through the federated communes and councils.